Nobert c. WestJet, 2026 QCCQ 3781

Does this apply to you?

This case applies if an airline cancelled your international flight before you ever reached the plane, and you got yourself to your destination on another airline. WestJet conceded the ticket refund and $1,000 in APPR compensation for each passenger. The court refused punitive damages. But it also held that the Montreal Convention does not govern a claim when the passengers were never in flight, boarding or leaving a plane. An airline cannot use the Convention to shut down that kind of claim.

What happened

Stéphane Nobert booked four WestJet tickets from Montreal to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, for himself, Ngoc Lan Au, Éric Gignac and Annie-Claude Trudeau. The trip was set for 29 December 2021. They would fly Montreal to Toronto at 7 am, then Toronto to Puerto Vallarta, arriving about 2 pm local time the same day. The whole trip was about eight hours.

At 7:44 pm on 28 December 2021, WestJet emailed to confirm the itinerary. About an hour later, WestJet told them the flights were cancelled. The reason, it seems, was a lack of crew.

WestJet offered a new itinerary. It added a stop in Calgary, left Montreal at 5:50 pm on 30 December, and arrived in Puerto Vallarta on 31 December. The passengers did not want to fly overnight and wait longer in airports. They had planned a New Year's Eve evening in Puerto Vallarta. So they quickly bought tickets on another airline, which got them there on 29 December as planned. They never flew with WestJet. Their return flights were already booked with a third airline.

Overnight and through 29 December, WestJet kept sending new itineraries. Some segments of the first offer were cancelled in turn. The passengers said they could not reach anyone at WestJet. The cancel and change function on the website was turned off, emails to customer service went unanswered, and phone transfers to an agent never connected.

They sent a demand letter on 19 August 2022 and then sued in the Small Claims Division of the Court of Quebec. Three of the four passengers are lawyers.

What the passengers argued

The passengers claimed $14,472.32 in total. That was a refund of the $4,472.32 Mr. Nobert paid for the four tickets, $1,000 each under the Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR), and $1,500 each in exemplary damages. They said WestJet prevented them "wilfully from exercising their right to refuse a change of itinerary, when the EconoFlex fare allowed cancellation and a refund without even needing to use the APPR recovery procedure."

They relied on the Montreal Convention, the APPR and Quebec's Consumer Protection Act. They filed no case law. Through Ms. Au, they pointed the court to Union des consommateurs c. Air Canada, 2025 QCCA 480, a case about price practices under the Consumer Protection Act. The judge noted that they had trouble explaining how the three laws fit together.

What WestJet argued

At the hearing, WestJet agreed to refund the $4,472.32 to Mr. Nobert and to pay each passenger the $1,000 claimed under the APPR.

WestJet contested only the exemplary damages. It said the Montreal Convention expressly bars punitive or exemplary damages. Its representative, who cited about 20 years in commercial aviation and said he had consulted WestJet's legal department, filed five Court of Quebec judgments on the spot that he said supported this position.

What the court decided

The Montreal Convention does bar punitive damages, when it applies. Article 29 of the Convention says that in any action for damages in the carriage of passengers, "punitive or exemplary damages, or any damages other than compensation, cannot be obtained." The judge said this rule is clear and not really debated in the case law.

But the Convention did not apply here. The judge relied on the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in Thibodeau v. Air Canada, 2014 SCC 67, which neither party had cited. The Convention is exclusive only for "harm suffered by passengers during a flight or while boarding or disembarking", meaning claims under Articles 17, 18 and 19. One of WestJet's own five cases, Dicaire c. Air Canada, 2024 QCCQ 5345, said the same thing. There, an airline cancelled a valid booking by mistake and the passenger had to buy another ticket in a hurry. Judge Théroux held that the claim fell under Quebec contract law, article 1458 of the Civil Code of Quebec, not the Convention. Here, the WestJet flights never took place. The passengers were never in flight, boarding or leaving a WestJet plane. So WestJet's argument was "not well founded."

No ruling on the APPR. The judge did not decide whether the APPR applied. He took formal note of WestJet's declaration at the hearing and ordered the $1,000 payments on that basis, plus the ticket refund.

No punitive damages under Quebec civil law either. The judge said the passengers' "unfinished" presentation of their case and of the applicable rules did not support the claim. They were already getting $1,000 each, likely for a reason far from the one they first had in mind. In any event, the judgment itself was enough to serve as prevention and deterrence for WestJet. The judge added that the events described at trial "hardly encourage the building of a relationship of trust with the company and its customer service."

The court ordered WestJet to pay Mr. Nobert $4,472.32 and to pay each of the four passengers $1,000, all with legal interest and the additional indemnity under article 1619 of the Civil Code of Quebec from 19 August 2022, plus $223 in court costs.

Why this matters

• The Montreal Convention only governs harm during a flight or while boarding or leaving one. If the airline cancelled before you ever got on, the Convention's limits, including its ban on punitive damages, do not apply. Provincial contract law does.
• Airlines may concede refunds and APPR compensation at the hearing rather than fight them. WestJet conceded $8,472.32 here without any ruling on the merits.
• Punitive damages are still hard to get. Even outside the Convention, this court refused them because the passengers did not build the legal case for them.
• Bring case law. Three of the four passengers were lawyers, and the judge still faulted their presentation. The key case, Thibodeau, was one neither side cited.

The details